"Fun" with Jack in the Box

I need to eat less fast food, even when pressed for time, but that's besides the point.

About a month ago, went to my local Jack in the Crack on a Friday night.

Had coupons. Still in date.

Had used one a week earlier. Manager or asst manager said they weren't sure how to code it in, but eventually did so.

Was back a week later.

Rank and file said I can't code that in, and didn't try. I should have left, but didn't. (I've done that before with walk-in.)

DM'ed Jack's Twitter. Nobody answered as of the following Tuesday. Problem one.

So, DM'ed its Hucksterman.

Got response. Was asked for email and phone.

Gave both.

ELEVEN days later, got an email from Jack in the Crack customer service.

Said, at the appropriate time, I wasn't satisfied and explained why, in addition to telling them NOT to bother contacting me again, and saying, see the explainer box.

I copied that, of course:

Let's see. 

First, nobody ever answered your Twitter messaging.

So, I went to Facebook. Was asked if I would provide both email and phone. I did.

Heard nothing until I got this survey form. That was, per Facebook, 11 days ago.

And, per the check box below this form field, no, I'd rather not you do further contact, as I probably wouldn't expect anything better in terms of service.

But, I am saving this conversation for my records and other use as deemed necessary.

And, this is "other use as deemed necessary."

Fast-food cults: In-N-Out vs Whataburger

Any time ANY news about In-N-Out in ANY state pops up on Twitter, Texans and ex-Texans, current and former denizens of the Pointy Abandoned Object State™(think about it, think about it) with the usual inferiority complex pop up and say, in essence:

"What about Whataburger?"

And? 

What about it?

Or, as it's known in these parts? What? A Burger?

Per the header, Whataburger's fanbois are just as much part of a cult as those of In-N-Out. Behind the scenes, of course, it's somewhat a Texas-vs-California bullshit smackdown, with Texans afraid the Pointy Abandoned Object State™ is becoming Californicated any time an In-N-Out opens here. (It's true; admit it on the fear, Texas wingnuts. It's also true on the reality; In-N-Out outnumbers What? A Burger? here in Tex-ass.)

First, so what if In-N-Out only allegedly has two items on its menu? (It's actually more than two if you count triples, quadruples and grilled cheese.) Lots of fast food places have started declining when they've put too many items on their menus.

Second, somebody from Whataburger will say something like: "What about our green chile burgers"?

First, yes, that's the correct spelling of "chile."

Second, coming from New Mexico, I'll say "What about 'em?" in rhetorical spades.

Blake's Lotaburger makes a much better one. Per Wiki, named best burger in the world by National Geographic.

That said, both In-N-Out AND Whataburger (and Lotaburger, for that matter) are overpriced. And, Whataburger, at least, offers few coupons. (It's gotten a bit better post-COVID.)

Cheap fast food, with lots of coupons, in the burgers world? Burger King.

More expensive, but cheaper than either of the cults, with more variety than In-N-Out, better flavor than Whataburger, and more coupons in the mail? Jack in the Box. I'll take it over any of the others, any day.

I used to go to Wendy's, but, since it refused to join other fast-food places in offering a few cents a pound more for Florida tomatoes, to be paid straight to the pickers, I've boycotted it, with one or two moments of weakness on coupons, for five years.

Of course, better yet, and healthier, among fast foods, is a sub sandwich with lots of vegetables on whole wheat bread.

Also overpriced is White Castle? My long-ago record of 19, and eating half of the boxes as well, all fueled by plenty of Meister Brau, still stands. But, no way I'd pay 75 cents or whatever for one of those little bitty things today.

Back to the cult of Whataburger.

Yes, I think there's an inferiority complex going on, along with fear of Californication.

To be fair, there are a couple of things done right in Texas. It overall has the best barbecue, with KC style running a close second. H-E-B is one of the best (won't say THE best) grocery chains. But Whataburger, or as I have called it on Twitter, What? A Burger?  No.

$15? Or $10.10? And how quickly?

After figuring out that Thomas Piketty has written a left-neoliberal book on capitalism's faults that ignores organized labor, and also figuring out that Bill Clinton will never, ever apologize to labor for NAFTA and the WTO, I can sympathize with the international fast-food employees' strike in wanting a higher minimum wage.

(Hat tip to Perry for reminding me of this.)

But, per the header of this piece? That said, in details of the strike, I think $15/hr, without a phase-in of seven or so years, is too high. Even then, it might be a bit much. The $10.10 of Beltway rounds, with a four-year phase-in, AND a COLA clause as part of that, sounds about right to me.

And, that's in part due to strategy reasons — reasons of what's realistic — as well as other considerations. And, I'm not alone:

Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University, said Thursday’s protests were an example of “the labor movement reinventing itself. It’s the most experimental thing labor has done in a long time.”

But he characterized the goal of a $15 hourly minimum as overly ambitious.

“They seem to forget you have to take little steps at a time,” he said. “When you don’t have very much, getting a little can mean a lot. You can’t get it all at once.”

Exactly.

And, expecting $15 an hour and almost immediately? Your store managers would put you all on salary and abuse comp time laws. Or try to figure out a way to classify you as independent contractors. Or simply shut down less profitable locations.

Yes, I know big businesses often use threats of closure or cuts as their own negotiating tools. And, I know that McDonald's jobs can't be outsourced to China.

And, I know it's true that wages are a fairly small portion of overhead for fast-food restaurants. Nonetheless, asking for them to be more than doubled off the current US minimum wage of $7.25 is a bit much.

And, if wages get to honestly be too big a portion, businesses will do more than just threats. Besides closures, or cuts, you could have cuts combined with split shifts. Every day of your work week. Or, even more of last-minute call-ins, or last-minute stay-homes, on your work schedule.

We also have to remember that a country as fast, populous and diversified as the US has great regional income disparities. In my current location in Texas, a $15/hr minimum wage would pretty much gut half the jobs here.

I blogged about this a bit before with Seattle's push for a $15 minimum wage. Protesters need to, per Chaison, have some sense of political reality.

They also need to have some sense of economic reality.

And, that's not just at the local level. The movement behind this all, Fast Food Forward is reportedly backed financially by Service Employees International Union.

A $15/hr minimum wage, at a full-time, year-round job, would produce a higher wage than the current individual median income, per the Census Bureau. I can understand (unlike Barack Obama) a deliberate "overshoot" as part of negotiations, but when you're pricing yourself out of the ballpark at the start, you don't sound very realistic. Or very well-informed. And, it's not just small-town Texas. Let's take Maplewood, Mo., a down-on-the-edges, but not totally "out," St. Louis suburb. A minimum wage of $15/hr on a 40-hr week puts you at 95 percent of annual household income there, and at almost 45 percent above per capita income. Nearly the same is true in a nowhere near down-at-the-edges heartland city, Grand Island, Neb. About 40 percent above the per capita median, and while only about 75 percent of the household income, still.

And, given that these protests are being backed or organized to some fair degree by organized labor folks well above the level of individual fast-food workers, that too is sad. Even in the glory days of Eisenhower, when adjusted into real dollars, the minimum wage was never but a sliver above $10 an hour.

So, restaurant workers? Dial back to $10.10, but with unionization rights as part of the deal. As for the $10.10, the Center for American Progress agrees. Its reason? That would be 50 percent of the national mean (not median) per capita. Elsewhere, Dylan Matthews notes than $15 would be 75 percent of the national median. Given the amount of economic diversity I indicated exists in America, I am confident in saying that it would be more than 100 percent of the median for census tracts of 25 percent of America.

Sadly, per Matthews, Felix Salmon is dumb enough to tout the $15 minimum, too. He says it would help the feds by bringing in tax revenue and moving people off the Earned Income Tax Credit. He should know better. He should know that with as high of a hike as I propose, even in northeastern metropolitan areas, some of this will happen.

Of course, about nobody I link above has ever lived in small-town Midwest or South areas.

SEIU? The same for the bulk of the types of workers you represent. Don't overshoot; you won't get sympathy for the broader issues behind this, including ever-increasing judicial hostility. Beyond that, that hostility is backed by Rick Snyder's election as governor of Michigan, Scott Walker's election as governor of Michigan, and more. A lot of Americans think that "union" is a four-letter word.

That said, I know that not a lot of workers are working 40 hours a week on minimum wage and that American unions like to use the minimum wage to bolster employees on the first tier above that. That then said, that's why a $15/hr request is really bad. SEIU? Nobody's going to want to pay janitors and security guards $17/hr in Grand Island, Neb. Simply ain't happening. They'll put up with dirty banks and fewer security guards.

Tocqueville missed noting that America is a land of confrontations, as part of American democracy. Too bad he wasn't here in the 1880s.

Speaking of him, this is part of why the US can't be fully like Western Europe. Lower population density, and more diversity within the various states. Well, maybe Western Europe will learn its lesson that a "Western Europe" that includes places like Greece under the euro umbrella can't be fully like Western Europe, either.

Finally, it's also why I identify myself on this blog as a skeptical left-liberal. I attempt to subject left-liberal ideas to some form of logical and empirical analysis before discussing them.

Update, May 18: Another way to put this, per the comment of Simon, who's non-American, is that the minimum wage, with that much of hike, has a broad parallel to the European Union's Eurozone crisis, to more clearly spell out what I first said. The rural South and Midwest are Greece, and New York City is London. Raise the minimum to $15/hr, and fair chunks of the US become post-eurozone crisis Greece.

And, per Simon's one comment, I noted that at $7.25, wages are a relatively modest part of fast-food overhead; I specifically indicated that likely would not be the same at $15. (Also, per that link to the Washington Post blog about the Center for American Progress, Australia's $16+ minimum wage would only be about $12 at most, here, at least under CAP's sensical idea. Also, Australia's minimum wage has a variety of loopholes, per that same link.

So, with that, and the added links above, can we please stop believing that a $15 minimum would be a painless panacea? I've already knocked down attempts to link it and helping the homeless.

Goodbye Dollar Menu?

McDonald’s franchisees would like to utter that magic phrase, but big Mayor McCheeses at HQ are instead pushing it further.

Franchisees’ complaint? Not enough profit margin in the dollar items.

A few stores, in fact, have stopped offering it.

And, since McDonald’s continues to be the industry leader, despite a few stumbles in recent years, you know that Wendy’s, Burger King and others are taking similar looks at their menus.

Restaurant grease theft on the rise

As oil prices continue to soar, biodiesel gains interest. And, with that, restaurant grease becomes more attractive, whether gained by legal or illegal means.

A Burger King grease dumpster worth $6K? Yes. Grease worth 33 cents a pound? Yes.

Wonder how long it will be before fast-food places put video cameras on their grease bins.